Tricky day

Ian Williams reports on his team's progress at the Congressional Cup match racing

Day 2 of the 42nd Congressional Cup was a similar affair to day 1. A light 6-10 knot thermal breeze made for some tricky calls and a crowded race course (there are 5 matches on the race-course at one time) didn’t make it any easier. It was also a similar day for the Williams Sail Racing Team in that we lost just one race, although we edged out yesterday’s performance by winning 5 today against the 4 from yesterday.

Race 1 against Johnie Berntsson of Sweden we led from start to finish, but Staffan Lindberg from Finland did not make things so easy for us in race 2. Coming off the line a little down speed on port, we expected to reach better pressure and a slight right hand shift to take us ahead of Lindberg but the expected conditions did not materialize.

When we tacked across, Lindberg had half a length clear on us and our strategy changed to that of trying to stay close in order to attack on the run. However, Lindberg gave us a little too much separation on the left and a small shift allowed us right back into the race. We crossed sides again, then as we approached the top mark on starboard, Lindberg was just crossing on port but we were able to hunt him up and prevent him from crossing. Lindberg pressed a little too hard to try and cross, picking up a penalty for his trouble, whilst we were able to roll into the tack, set our spinnaker and sail off. From that moment, the race was relatively comfortable, as was race 3 against Peter Wibroe (Denmark).

Race 4 against Mathieu Richard of France was always going to be a big test. We were going into the race with a 7-1 score line but Richard was on 8-0. After dominating the pre-start, we started at the committee boat on port and proceeded to what appeared to be the favoured right hand side whilst Richard sailed out to the left. With so many races coming downwind, there were no opportunities for either boat to tack back to the middle without suffering some bad air, so both boats went all the way to their respective laylines. Unfortunately for us, the left came in on this occasion and Richard crossed us at the top by a good 5 lengths. Although we caught up again near the top of the second beat, Richard sailed a smart race and never gave us an opportunity to pass, giving him the perfect 9-0 score line for the round robin.

The race committee rolled straight into the second round robin, of which we got in two races; one against Simon Minoprio (New Zealand) and one against Brian Angel (USA). In the first, we won the favoured right hand side which gave us an early three length lead which we defended all the way round. In the second, we managed to shut out Angel at the committee boat at the start which gave us a four length lead at the start. We extended a little up the beat to round about six lengths ahead. From there, Angel showed an impressive turn of speed - it seemed that every time we came to a cross, either upwind or down, he had gained a bit. Eventually we won the race, but only by about a length in the end.

So we’re now on a 9-2 record which leaves us second overall. Richard leads on 10-1 and Brady is third on 8-3. It’s looking like there’ll be a real scrap for 4th with Lindberg on 6-5 and Minoprio and Berntsson on 5-6 each. We just need to make sure we don’t get sucked into that scrap while still working on familiarising ourselves with the boats and the venue in these light tricky conditions, hopefully setting ourselves up to be as strong as possible for the semi-finals.